SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

tmpwatch recursively removes files which haven’t been accessed for a
given number of hours. Normally, it’s used to clean up directories
which are used for temporary holding space such as /tmp.
When changing directories, tmpwatch is very sensitive to possible race
conditions and will exit with an error if one is detected. It does not
follow symbolic links in the directories it’s cleaning (even if a sym-
bolic link is given as its argument), will not switch filesystems,
skips lost+found directories owned by the root user, and only removes
empty directories and regular files.
By default, tmpwatch dates files by their atime (access time), not
their mtime (modification time). If files aren’t being removed when ls-l implies they should be, use ls-u to examine their atime to see if
that explains the problem.
If the --atime, --ctime or --mtime options are used in combination, the
decision about deleting a file will be based on the maximum of these
times.
The hours parameter defines the threshold for removing files. If the
file has not been accessed for hours hours, the file is removed. Fol-
lowing this, one or more directories may be given for tmpwatch to clean
up.

OPTIONS

-u,--atime
Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file’s
atime (access time). This is the default.
-m,--mtime
Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file’s
mtime (modification time) instead of the atime.
-c,--ctime
Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file’s
ctime (inode change time) instead of the atime; for directories,
make the decision based on the mtime.
-a,--all
Remove all file types, not just regular files and directories.
-d,--nodirs
Do not attempt to remove directories, even if they are empty.
-f,--force
Remove files even if root doesn’t have write access (akin to rm-f).
-t,--test
Doesn’t remove files, but goes through the motions of removing
them. This implies -v.
-s,--fuser
Attempt to use the "fuser" command to see if a file is already
open before removing it. Not enabled by default. Does help in
some circumstances, but not all. Dependent on fuser being
installed in /sbin. Not supported on HP-UX or Solaris.
-v,--verbose
Print a verbose display. Two levels of verboseness are available
-- use this option twice to get the most verbose output.
-x,--exclude=path
Skip absolute path; if path is a directory, all files contained
in it are skipped too. The directories to clean up must also be
absolute paths.